KALAMAZOO — A Kalamazoo man was stabbed in the neck Sunday morning after he tried to steal another man's cellular phone on the city's north side, police said.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers found the injured 17-year-old, whose name was not released, after responding at 8:15 a.m. to the corner of Florence Street and North Westnedge Avenue for a report that a man had been stabbed and found the man bleeding from a wound to his neck. He told police he had been attacked for no reason by a tall man dressed in all black who had run from the area after the incident, a news release said.

Police said several officers responded to the area but found no one matching the suspect's description. Investigators “determined that the injured subject had provided 911 dispatch with false information,” according to the news release.

Officers later found a 3-inch razor blade, a syringe of suspected heroin and a man's shoe in the 600 block of Florence. Public Safety Officer Peter Hoyt and his K-9 Q then found “a breathless male” nearby in the 600 block of Mabel Street, the news release said.

The man, who is from Parchment and in his mid-20s, told officers he had been walking on Florence when he was approached by two people who circled him “and demanded that he surrender his cell phone,” the news release said. When he refused to hand over his phone, he was attacked.

During the struggle, the man pulled a razor blade “in self defense and ended the attack by deeply cutting the suspect's neck,” police said. The man was then able to break free and lost a shoe as he was running away.

Police said the man who was cut by the razor blade was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police found the other man's cell phone and returned it to him, according to the news release.

Investigators plan to submit the case for review to the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office, according to KDPS.

Police ask that anyone with information about the incident call KDPS at 269-337-8994 or contact Silent Observer at 269-343-2100 or www.kalamazoosilentobserver.com.